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Current Events
- If you or people in your area want to meet and discuss current/future topics related to the city, reach out to me to set up a time to visit. (email, phone call, or in person)
- As you're driving on the river road by Stephens' park, you'll notice construction on the south side of the road. That's the new central water system treatment facility in progress.
- Many of you are familiar with the phrase "rural look and feel" or "rural character." Dayton residents have said this is important to them and I agree. It's even in our mission statement. We've had a couple work sessions on the topic and I believe it'll result in a list of ideas we will be prioritizing for the future. If you have ideas, please let me know.
Item K (Board of Appeal)
When you get your property tax preliminary statement, you have the ability to contest your value and classification of your property. You first contact the county and if an agreement can't be made there you have the option to bring it to the local Appeals Board. Which is the council.
Over the past couple of years we've discovered that the Appeals Board (the Council) doesn't get the last word, and in fact, the county can and has overruled us... even though the entire point of the Appeals Board was to settle the dispute between the property owner and the county.
Which this knowledge in mind we've decided to join a lot of other communities around us and no longer waste our time, the resident's time, and get the resident's hopes up that they are getting a dispute resolved.
For the umpteenth time... I'm not impressed with our county.
Item L (Heinen IUP)
A couple of years ago the city issued an IUP here for a home extended indoor and outdoor storage business. Unfortunately there's been a lot of other activity there that wasn't authorized by the permit. Staff believes it is being cleaned up and this was a chance for the property owners to walk us through what they are doing to deal with it.
Item M (Graco Concept World Headquarters Plan)
A concept plan is just a way for the developer to give a preview to the planning commission and the council the overall idea of what they want to create and to get feedback and to what might need to be changed. What they presented looked pretty good to all of us. There was some discussion on building height and screening of the equipment on top of the building.
Item N (Dayton Fields Final Plat)
This was just to get permission to extend the deadline on a final plat. It passed 5-0.
Item O (3rd Quarter Report)
As with every quarterly financial report, everything seems to be on track.
Item P (Long Term Plan)
The long term plan is a 10 year plan that shows where/how much the city is planning on spending money. It's adjusted occasionally but once a year it's reviewed. What really gets the focus is the next 2 years.
Staff is always pushing the boundaries on spending. Always. Did I mention always?
Just know that when you read something on Facebook that says the city is going to spend $20M on... take that with a barrel of salt. Staff is always (did I mention always) pushing for significantly more spending. That doesn't mean it'll happen. Staff knows we'll push back so they create a "wish list" and pack it with enough stuff to bankrupt the city. Then we start chopping. This is where previous leadership would make the claim that the council had to show why something shouldn't be purchased. It also explains why Dayton always had one of the highest tax rates in the state.
By far the most expensive item in the next 2 years was an aerial (ladder) truck for the fire department at $2.5M. When that was proposed last year, three of us were against it. At that time we had 2 members that were ok with whatever staff wanted. In fact one would routinely claim that if staff wanted it, they must need it since they're the experts. That thinking is what got this city in trouble in the past. What got us to vote for it was the claim by staff that we wouldn't have to pay a dime until we actually took possession. So we ordered it. Unfortunately we found out recently that wasn't the case. If we cancelled the order and it was already under construction there was a $250k liability if WE couldn't find another buyer for the exact truck we had built. So... with that in mind all 5 of us agreed to cancel the order since they likely hadn't started building yet.
And there were also a few other items the fire department had in there that we didn't feel were needed (like two $90k pickups).
Item R (Parking on Maple Court)
With the construction of the Kwik Trip truck stop, tractor-trailers have started parking on the service road instead of in the parking lot and it's not that the parking lot is anywhere near full. With trucks parked on the road it gets difficult for other trucks to get in there so we no longer allow parking on that road.
Always, if you have questions / concerns feel free to contact me.